Mark and Emily’s Downtown Grand Rapids Proposal Shoot

Mark and I have been friends since high school so when he asked me to photograph his proposal recently, I was all in. After weeks of texting back and forth, we met up with our friend Casey for beers and a quick walk through of the location to make sure everything would go as planned on the big day. Just kidding. The walk through didn’t happen. Dudes don’t do walkthroughs.

When the day finally arrived, Mark told me to be ready outside of Stella’s Lounge at exactly 5PM. I decided to wait across the street at Two Bears Deli and eagerly sipped on a cold ginger ale while I waited for the moment to arrive. Before I knew it, it was 4:59PM and they were walking hand in hand down Commerce Ave., right on schedule. Meanwhile, I was starting to sweat. Awesome.

Fortunately, my adrenaline took over and I immediately started snapping photos through the deli window. In fact, I even made a man enjoying his sandwich by the larger window move aside so I could get a better view. Lucky for me, no one argues when you explain there’s a proposal about to go down. He grabbed his drink and mumbled through a mouthful of food, “yeah, sure!” and scooted over.

Before I knew it, I could see Mark searching for the ring in his back pocket. I decided to sneak out of the deli and hide behind one of the parked cars to get a closer vantage. In a matter of seconds, my man Mark was down on one knee, Emily was in pure shock and the proposal began. The rest is history folks. I’ll let the photos do the talking.